Rudy Giuliani

Giulianowned! Rudy to bow out, endorse McCain

Filed under: Rudy Giuliani

CNN is calling the primary with 54 percent of the precincts reporting, with McCain their projected winner. Romney's strong performance indicates that he's still in the race ... but "America's Mayor" folded like a gutshot straight draw.

The iconic image of the night for me, from before they called it:

Rudy's bummin'. Also, nice abuse of the apostrophe, CNN, unless you were talking about the Achille Lauro's heel.

His speech tonight was to his followers, and an effective withdrawal. CNN says he's expected to endorse McCain as soon as tomorrow. A quick review of all the concession speeches I saw coming in a minute.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at January 29, 2008 8:06 PM | Comments (0)

 

Will Rudy's legacy on race issues be buried with his candidacy ?

Filed under: Rudy Giuliani

I'm not calling this primary, but I am readying the relevant muscles for a dynamic goodbye wave to Rudy Giuliani.

It's really too bad in a way. He gave us reason to confront some complex issues--most notably the intersection of race and politics.

Rudy's hometown paper ran a fascinating piece looking at the candidate's legacy of dealing with race issues as mayor of New York City. In a Republican contest virtually empty of the race discussion happening on the Democratic side, it's too bad this stuff wasn't much part of the conversation while he was still a contender.

Here's a particularly jarring excerpt:

Determined to assault the liberal trenches, Mr. Giuliani never blanched at giving offense. He lopped the welfare rolls by 500,000, laid off thousands of black political appointees seen as too liberal and hired hundreds of more conservative whites seen as loyal to his political agenda. And he sent two schools chancellors — one black, one Hispanic — spinning out of town.

In 1995, he proposed cutting welfare benefits, and suggested that many of the poor might profitably leave town. “A natural consequence of a reduction in benefits might very well be that that would happen,” Mr. Giuliani said, adding, “That would be a good thing.”

Mr. Giuliani has written in his book “Leadership” about his belief in the cleansing power of confrontational words. Nor is he enamored of compromise. Asked in 2000 about reaching out to black leaders, he shook his head and said, “What happens when you engage in the dialogue is, you compromise.”

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at January 29, 2008 9:56 AM | Comments (0)

 

Rudy: Not endorsed by anyone!

Filed under: Rudy Giuliani

With the pivotal Florida primary tomorrow night (along with the nearly-as-anticipated City Pages liveblog of same), candidates are ramping up their persuasive efforts. Mitt Romney is accusing John McCain of being a liar; McCain is rallying support from hawks, touting his national security credentials. Neither are engaging in the bold gambit employed by the former New York City mayor who has staked his candidacy on performing well here.

Rudy Giuliani is taking this opportunity to remind voters that no one likes him.

That's right, Rudy's new ad emphasizes how many papers have not endorsed him. Here's how the ad starts, in voiceover:

“Rudy Giuliani is not endorsed by The Tampa Tribune. Not endorsed by the Orlando Sentinel. Not endorsed by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. In fact, he’s not endorsed by any of the liberal newspapers."

I suppose if you can't win on the issues, and your personality seems to just create likability problems, it's about time to start turning to reverse psychology. If current polling trends hold true, he'll soon be adding "not endorsed by Florida voters" to that list.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at January 28, 2008 12:19 PM | Comments (0)

 

To Know Rudy is To Loathe Him

Filed under: Rudy Giuliani

Ever notice that the more people get to know Rudy Giuliani, the less they like him?

The Hyena is spending $350K a day in Florida ... and plunging in the polls. Check out Talking Points Memo's poll tracker for that state, where Giuliani is mostly running third or fourth.

Remember when America's Mayor was leading in national polls about electability? The more the country has learned about this guy -- from mistresses to Bernie Kerik, to just plain old personality -- the more we've moved on from him.

Rudy's not even dead in the water at this point. He's already hit the water, died, decomposed, been eaten by fish, excreted, and assimilated into the marine environment by coral. Which is fitting, given that Rudy is more than a little twisted himself.

Even if he pulls out a miraculous Florida victory, this is likely the case. America has said to its ex-Mayor what Propagandhi did years ago, in their tune "Ska Sucks."

Posted by Jeff Shaw at January 23, 2008 11:08 AM | Comments (0)

 

Rudy Giuliani is a mean, ugly man

Filed under: Rudy Giuliani

As much as I'm pulling for a Rudy revival and brokered GOP convention, today's New York Times contains mandatory reading about the former Mayor. The piece mercilessly describes Giuliani's sad, petty, tyrannical behavior during his eight-year tenure. It's a hit piece in the finest sense of the term. Nary a positive word is uttered on the Mayor's behalf. Here's a favorite passage:

Mr. Giuliani paid careful attention to the art of political payback. When former Mayors Edward I. Koch and David N. Dinkins spoke publicly of Mr. Giuliani’s foibles, mayoral aides removed their official portraits from the ceremonial Blue Room at City Hall. Mr. Koch, who wrote a book titled “Giuliani: Nasty Man,” shrugs.

“David Dinkins and I are lucky that Rudy didn’t cast our portraits onto a bonfire along with the First Amendment, which he enjoyed violating daily,” Mr. Koch said in a recent interview.

Coupled with Elizabeth Kolbert's devastating portrait of Giuliani in the The New Yorker a couple weeks ago, everyone should understand that Giuliani is a dangerous, vindictive prick. Hopefully that's what voters in Florida are seeking.

Posted by Paul Demko at January 22, 2008 12:12 PM | Comments (4)

 

Who will Rudy beat?

Filed under: Rudy Giuliani

With 32 percent of the precincts reporting, Rudy is getting three percent of the vote, with 8,648 total ballots cast for him.

This means he is outpacing:

* "Uncommitted" (6,082 votes, 2 percent)
* Duncan Hunter (1,013 votes, 0 percent)
* Dennis Kucinich (7,168 votes, 4 percent)
* My grandmother (0 votes, 0 percent)

Of those, "uncommitted" is not actually a person, Dennis Kucinich is Democrat running in a primary that doesn't count, and my grandmother not only never lived in Michigan, she is, in fact, dead. (You're still first in my heart, grandma!) Rudy's gonna have to take solace in the fact that he's Big Republican On Campus compared to Duncan Hunter.

Full disclosure -- he's also beating Chris Dodd and Mike Gravel, both Democrats. Courage, Rudy! Those campaign higher-ups are really earning their paychecks now.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at January 15, 2008 8:41 PM | Comments (1)

 

Exit Polls: Romney Rocking, Rudy Wretched

Filed under: Rudy Giuliani

Two new exit polls: From Drudge (115% EXCLUSIVE!!! MUST CREDIT!!!):

"EXIT POLLS SHOW: Romney 34, McCain 29, Huckabee 16... Developing..."

From NRO: Romney 35, McCain 29, Huckabee 15, Ron Paul 10, Giuliani 4.

As I said in Demko's predictions thread, I figured Paul would do well here. The militia vote and all. Rudy's looking like roadkill. I'm rooting for him to stay alive, because I love infighting and the chance of a brokered convention. I also want to see how many other languages Rudy will run tasteless ads in.

Most of all, though, I want Rudy to stay alive so that -- in the event Fox hosts another debate -- people will have to justify including him. This is especially true if they try to keep Ron Paul out again. Rudy gets embarrassed, veins in the heads of Paul supporters begin to throb. Gleeful times all around.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at January 15, 2008 7:00 PM | Comments (0)

 

Rudy's people now working for free

Filed under: Rudy Giuliani

Yes, you read the headline right -- Rudy Giuliani's top campaign people are foregoing paychecks for the month of January.

But the campaign isn't having money troubles. Of course not.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: hyena.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at January 11, 2008 12:39 PM